What did my mother really do during the war?

My mother, Gladys MARTIN HEISER (1921-1999) worked for the U.S. War Department during World War II. She went to work there shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Mom’s story and she stuck to it

Mom always told us that she was a typist during the war. She said she was hired because she was a fast and accurate typist, especially with typing numbers. Part of her job was typing coded messages that contained numbers. She made it sound rather ordinary.  

Her explanation made sense to my sister and me, and we never questioned her beyond that. My mom was a fast typist, even 30 years later, and even though she had severe rheumatoid arthritis in both hands.  

But recently I read The Rose Code: A Novel by Kate Quinn, a story that made me rethink my mom’s work at the War Department.  

The Rose Code, a work of historical fiction, centers around three British women who worked at Bletchley Park in England, which was sort of like the U.S. War Department when it came to codebreaking. Osla, Mab, and Beth each had special qualities that made them valuable to Bletchley Park. One was fluent in German, one was excellent at solving puzzles, and one had technical skills that carried over to working with the codebreaking machines.

Yes, The Rose Code, is historical fiction, but it is based on truth. What the author wrote about Bletchley Park, and the work there, was researched and accurate.

The work and work environment of Osla, Mab, and Beth was eerily similar to what mom told us about her war days.

Bletchley Park employed men and women with exceptional skills. Civilian employees and military personnel worked side by side. The hours started out more or less regular, but the work quickly went 24/7. Shifts became long and irregular as the war progressed, and often many days in a row with no days off. Same as what Mom described about working at the War Department.

The women at Bletchley Park were often housed in private homes. The men and women chummed around together in their off hours, going to social events and even creating their own book club.  When able, they went home to visit family.

Mom lived in a private home at the start of the war, and then in a few boarding houses, before finally finding an apartment to rent with another War Department employee. She and her work friends enjoyed listening to live, big band music and swing dancing. She and a few of her coworkers organized tours of D.C. for sailors and soldiers they met at work who were new to the city.  And she and her friends returned home to visit when they could.

Those working at Bletchley Park signed a promise of secrecy with stiff penalties if they violated the promise.

I discovered that the employees of the War Department also had to sign secrecy agreements. The women who worked at Bletchley Park told everyone who asked that they were typists and did boring secretarial work. Funny, that’s basically what my mom told everyone.

Time for one of my favorite things – research – and here’s what I found.

My mom was likely part of the support staff and not involved with actual codebreaking. As support staff, she probably worked with coded (encrypted) or decrypted messages that were integral to the codebreaking process, even if she wasn’t analyzing the codes herself.

From the internet:

“Typing numbers rapidly and with precision was a highly valued skill in codebreaking and cryptologic operations for several reasons:

1. Code and Cipher Work:
   Many secret messages during the war were either encrypted into strings of numbers, or decoded from numbers back to plain text. Typists who could efficiently and accurately type lengthy columns of numbers were essential for preparing cipher texts, transcribing intercepted enemy traffic, or documenting variables for codebooks and encryption machines.
2. Speed and Accuracy:
   Mistakes in typing—even a single digit—could render coded messages unreadable or corrupt vital intelligence. Fast, accurate typists helped keep the codebreaking process efficient and minimized errors that could compromise intelligence work.
3. Support for Cryptanalysts:
   Cryptanalysts and codebreakers often relied on typists to prepare the large volumes of numerical data required for analysis, meaning your family member’s abilities directly supported classified intelligence work.”

Mom walked the fine line of the truth

Mom didn’t lie about being a typist during the war. And she mostly kept her oath of secrecy. But I am now convinced that she was like the women and men at Bletchley Park. Those men and women, my mom, and her coworkers at the War Department used their skills to the best of their ability to help save their countries and the world. They did their duty and then went on with their lives once the war was over, humbly keeping their part in the war effort to themselves.

They, and their entire generation, were indeed the Greatest Generation.

What role did your parents are grandparents play during WW2? Did they serve in the military or support the war from the home front?

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